Monday, October 18, 2010

I didn’t sleep well last night. It had to be nerves though I have nothing to be nervous about. Bo is in wonderful hands (I venture to say in even better hands than ours). But my pessimistic personality is that every time I take a major trip I plan not to return. It’s sick, but it’s true. The bad news is---that’s just plain weird. The good news is, it’s resulted in me savoring my time with Bo this week (even more than I usually do). At any rate, I didn’t sleep well.

Mimi and Pop had other visitors this weekend, too, so we shared a room with Bo. I usually dread sharing a room with him, as I tend to not sleep well because I hear his every noise. But last night…it was just what this Momma needed, hearing that sweet breathing and grunts. Bo got up about an hour earlier than usual and I was happy for the extra time to cuddle and play. Before we knew it, we were off to the airport, and Bo was left to be spoiled by Mimi and Pop and his aunts and uncles (who were all going to church together and eating lunch together).

American Airlines was no friend to us to us today. The flight from Dallas to Lubbock to pick us up was delayed to a mechanical problem so we missed our connecting out of Dallas. There was no way to reroute us so we were stuck in DFW for the night. I wasn’t too bummed at first because I thought we could just leave out of Lubbock tomorrow (and spend an extra day with our buddy), but that didn’t work out so it was off to DFW for a night.

Things I learned today:

1.You attract more with honey than vinegar.

The delays in Lubbock wrecked havoc on a lot of passengers’ plans. We stood behind two sets of people in line to speak with the gate agent who thought vinegar would do the trick. They were so awful to the gate agents; I was horribly embarrassed for them. One young lady was particularly hateful and I thought two things as I observed her: 1) what a horrible way to treat another human being 2) I’m sad that I see a little bit of my pre-momma self in you.

We resolved to “use honey”. The defeated gate agent was grateful and told us it was his birthday. Poor guy. Honey did the trick, and he was kind enough to upgrade us to first class on our rerouted flight. We tried honey again with the concierge in the hotel they put us up in, and he upgraded us to the penthouse suite. That’s 2 for honey and 0 for vinegar!

2.Being Bo’s momma has helped give me some perspective.

I was so sad that I saw glimpses of my pre-momma self in the young lady in front of us. Self awareness isn’t pretty sometimes. I remember too vividly how I felt when things didn’t go as planned pre-momma…and I’m talking literal flushing of cheeks, increased heart rate and head rush from negative emotions—serious physical responses. I was bummed things weren’t working out yesterday…but I was surprised that I had no emotional or physical response whatsoever. Yeah, I was disappointed, but no pointless anger at circumstances that were beyond our control. I can’t even explain it either except that Bo puts things in perspective. He’s happy and healthy, and we’re a family of three in a good place right now, and a little flight rescheduling isn’t going to rattle me. Most of the times I feel stunted in my growth as a human being, but today was one of those rare days when I said, “yay for progress!”

We ended up enjoying our day in Dallas—eating at one of our favorite places and visiting with Jonathan’s sister and her family.